Posts Tagged ‘SOE’

(Reuters) – Spanish police arrested three suspected members of the so-called “Anonymous” group on Friday on charges of cyber attacks against targets including Sony’s PlayStation store, governments, businesses and banks.

The police said the accused, arrested in Almeria, Barcelona and Alicante, were guilty of coordinated computer attacks from a server set up in a house in Gijon in the north of Spain.

Spanish police alleged the three arrested “hacktivists” had been involved in cyber attacks on Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia and the Italian energy group Enel as well as Sony PlayStation stores.

Members of the loosely coordinated “Anonymous” group, known for wearing Guy Fawkes masks made popular by the graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” had also attacked government sites in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, police said.

“They are structured in independent cells and make thousands of simultaneous attacks using infected ‘zombie’ computers worldwide. This is why NATO considers them a threat to the military alliance,” the police said in a statement.

“They are even capable of collapsing a country’s administrative structure.”

The arrests are the first in Spain against members of the “Anonymous” group following similar legal proceedings in the United States and Britain.

Stringer’s comments, which did not specify when services would resume, come after criticism of his leadership since Sony revealed hackers had compromised the data of more than 100 million accounts used for accessing games and music over the Internet.

“As a company we, and I, apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack,” Stringer said on Sony’s U.S. PlayStation blog late on Thursday.

The incident may prove to be a significant setback for a company looking to recover after being outmanoeuvred by Apple in portable music and Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs and which faces a tough fight in video games with Nintendo and Microsoft.

One analyst said security concerns could weigh on sales of Sony’s gadgets and hurt growth prospects for its network services.

“There is a real concern that trust in Sony’s business will decline,” Kota Ezawa, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, wrote in a note ahead of the comments from Stringer.

“The network business itself still only makes a small direct contribution to earnings, but we see a potential drop in hardware sales as a concern.”

(Gamespot) – Sony Online Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game DC Universe Online is proving to be a massive success for its maker. According to the publisher, the title has used its superhuman strength to become SOE’s fastest-selling game ever.

The news comes via the Twitter post of SOE president John Smedley, who said the game is evaporating from store shelves.

“Working on out-of-stock problems for DCUO,” he said. “It’s out [sic] fastest selling game ever. Should have more inventory in Monday.”

Smedley also used the social networking space to tout Steam sales figures. Smedley said DC Universe Online was #1 in sales on Steam last week. He did not offer further specifics as to how well the PS3 iteration is selling.

Set within the DC Comics world, DC Universe Online lets players create a superhero or villain and fight alongside or against iconic comic book characters, such as the Joker, Batman, Superman, and others. It was developed under the creative direction of famed comic book artist Jim Lee.

(Gamespot) – Recently, hackers proclaimed victory over the PlayStation 3′s security measures, releasing security keys allowing people to run unauthorized software on their consoles, including pirated games, homebrew programs, and even custom firmware. Sony Computer Entertainment America fired back yesterday, filing suit in US District Court against original iPhone jailbreaker George Hotz and multiple members of a hacking collective called fail0verflow.

The suit seeks injunctive relief and damages, accusing the hackers of breach of contract, tortuous interference with contractual relations, trespassing, common law misappropriation, and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Copyright Act, and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

Additionally, Sony characterizes the hackers’ efforts as a conspiracy because they worked together to circumvent the PS3 security measures and encouraged others to build on those actions. As a result, Sony wants each of the defendants held liable for all acts committed in furtherance of the conspiracy by the other members.

“Unless this court enjoins defendants’ unlawful conduct, hackers will succeed in their attempts to ensure that pirated software can be run on the PS3 system, resulting in the destruction of SCEA’s business,” the suit states.

Sony is also seeking a temporary restraining order preventing the defendants from circumventing the PS3 security or assisting others in that act, as well as an evidentiary preservation order requiring them to preserve all hardware and files related to their hacking efforts. Those requests have not yet been ruled on by a judge.

(Gamespot) – Comic book-loving gamers got some good news yesterday, when Sony Online Entertainment announced a hard release date for DC Universe Online. The PlayStation 3 and PC massively multiplayer role-playing game will ship on January 11 in North America, with a European release date three days later. The game is currently in a closed beta on both platforms.

The game will retail for $50 on the PC and $60 for the PlayStation 3. Also available is a $100 collector’s edition, which contains a batman figurine, an art book, a Geoff Johns-penned prequel comic, and the first issue of a new DC Universe Online comic book. In terms of subscription, DC Universe Online will cost $15 per month, although the first 30 days of play are included in the game’s purchase price..

Previously scheduled to launch last month, DC Universe online was delayed in October by SOE. Set within the DC Comics world, the game will let players create a superhero or villain and fight alongside or against iconic comic book characters, such as the Joker, Batman, Superman, and others. It was developed under the creative direction of famed comic book artist Jim Lee.

Scientists conducted a gaming survey of some 7,000 players who were logged into the game EverQuest II this year. With these statistics they discovered several interesting findings. One being the average age of the gamers surveyed was 31. And that playing time tended to increase with age. Which now brings in the sex differences…

The numbers showed that the female gamers actually logged more game hours (of Everquest II) than the males. The ladies had an average of 29 hours a week, versus 25 for the males, with the top players putting in 57 hours a week on the girl’s side, and 51 for the guys.

And another interesting thing, get ready for this…it looks like women are more likely to lie about how much they really play this game in particular. Researchers found that the gals tended to lowball how long they spend glued to the screen. (Surprise? And they make fun of all you World of Warcraft dudes who barely leave the seat to handle bodily functions! – notably called a ‘bio’.)

So there you go, when your gamer gal doesn’t answer her phone, and says she’s going to wash her hair, she actually may be tackling some high end mob in Norrath, anticipating how good it will feel to flash that epic loot in front of your hungry eyes. Go figure.

The massively-multiplayer first-person shooter PlanetSide launched in 2003 but has never earned the numbers of more traditional MMOs like World of Warcraft.

Hurdles like not enough variants of battles, or the lacking of rpg-elements could be why PlanetSide seemed like a great idea but never really took off.

In a mass email sent last week to current and old PlanetSide subcribers, SOE is asking players to fill in a survey that would help SOE design the next generation version of this game. The email read, in part, “We plan to expand the PlanetSide universe with another game and we need your help with the design.” The original game will not be closed down.

Further evidence: The company registered the domain www.planetside2.com on September 21, 2009.

Now that it’s 2009, technical hurdles could be cleared, and a few tweaks in level design could eliminate some of the repetition of the original. Seems like the timing could be good for a change in the old level grinding MMO, so were anxious to see SOE’s shot a improving on this games previous shortcomings. We all need another monthy MMO charge right? /yuck